The front vehicle body structure disclosed, for example, in Patent Literature 1 includes left and right front side frames extending in the front-rear direction of a vehicle body, a dash panel that separates an engine space from a passenger compartment, a pair of dash side panels provided on both vehicle-widthwise ends of the dash panel, and a pair of corner gussets that reinforce the corners between the dash panel and the dash side panels. In the front vehicle body structure described above, the rear end of an upper member that forms a rear portion of each of the front side frames coincides with the front end of the corresponding corner gusset.
According to the front vehicle body structure described above, a collision load acting on the front side frames is transmitted to the corner gussets via the dash panel and further transmitted from the corner gussets to the dash side panels, front pillars, and other vehicle body members.
In the front vehicle body structure disclosed in Patent Literature 1, a central component of a crossmember is disposed along the vehicle width direction, and the crossmember is connected to the left and right front side frames via crossmember extensions. The crossmember could therefore disadvantageously interfere with a joint cover through which a steering shaft is inserted. To dispose the steering shaft in an optimum attitude, the crossmember is required to be lower than the joint cover. In this case, however, the crossmember connected to the left and right front side frames cannot be disposed at an optimum height.
In the configuration described above, the steering shaft cannot be disposed in an optimum attitude that allows a passenger compartment space to be large enough for a vehicle occupant to readily drive the vehicle, nor can the crossmember be disposed in an optimum position that allows a steady deformation mode of the left and right front side frames to be achieved when a head-on collision occurs.